Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We pay homage to those who came before us in more ways than we might ever consider. Such is the relationship between past and present that at points in our ever-extending repertoire we revert, perhaps fleetingly, but always with grace in our choices, to that which influenced us in our formative years.

Whether that reverence is to our immediate elders, or to the external ‘family’ that supply the love of deep feeling groove, of the appreciation of the Blues and melancholy days that fight for the attention of the joy to be found in continuing a legacy, is always up for debate; however it should always be admitted that everything that came before is the apex of our being, and without it how can justify our own creations.

Bernard Allison’s Highs & Lows is one of commitment, a dedication to his honoured father in two specially adapted tracks and nine others that simply and expertly carry the legacy of the Blues family gene onwards as the world looks on in admiration and as each note fills the air with a heartbeat of passion wrapped up in the dynamic of swaggering fulfilment and holding hands with courage and deference to the listener’s own mojo, so Bernard Allison rises above the clamour enjoyed by many and is seen to be held aloft as was his father, as is his profession in this new age of Blues appreciation. 

Across tracks such as Strain On My Heart, Hustler, the inspired homage to his father in I Gave It All and Now You Got It, My Kinda Girl, Satisfy Her Needs, Last Night, and the album opener So Excited, the world class Blues enigma plays out in the name of the seeking to join past and present and in the company of greats, Bernard Allison’s Highs & Lows are palpable, they are living and breathing creatures of wealth and intrigue that catch the ear of promise and deliver with security and emotional belief.

A superb Blues album, an album to which the name is all you need to hold.

Bernard Allison’s Highs & Lows is available from Ruf Records.

Ian D. Hall